


hello to the spring

by Mertiya



Series: scenes from the life you never thought you'd have (and you're not quite sure you deserve) [2]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi is too but he's scared, Akira is a good boyfriend, Anxiety, Christmas Fluff, Coming of Age, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fix-It, Future Fic, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, KFC, M/M, japanese christmas so it's romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 06:43:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17802998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mertiya/pseuds/Mertiya
Summary: Akechi bails on Christmas dinner with Akira and friends.  Akira goes after him.





	hello to the spring

**Author's Note:**

> When I wrote 'all we inherit' I was absolutely not planning on a sequel but this came up and bit me today, and it's pretty appropriate what with Japanese Christmas being pretty similar to Valentine's Day in the US, so I'm only a day late if you think about it like that.

It’s Christmas, the bright lights strung everywhere, the first Christmas after all of it is over, the first Christmas that Akira knows he can call Sojiro ‘dad’ without worrying about whether it’ll be taken away, the first Christmas that he and Goro are celebrating as a couple. An official couple. First time, so they’re not really planning on doing anything just the two of them. Akira doesn’t want to pressure his boyfriend, and he’s tired, and there’s something so nice about sitting in a KFC at a booth they reserved months ago, him and Goro and all the rest of their friends.

                  Futaba’s squished up against his side, laughing and going on about her latest video game obsession. Shiho is next to Ann, both of them very red and sneaking glances at each other. Ryuji hasn’t stopped shoveling food into his mouth since they got here. Yusuke is listening with apparent deep interest to Futaba’s rant, and Haru is just smiling at everyone else, while Mona sits in her lap and lets her pet him.

                  Goro’s seemed a little off all evening, but Akira figures it’s just nerves, right up until the minute his boyfriend comes back from the bathroom, stares at him with a frankly terrified look on his face, turns, and practically runs out of the restaurant, almost running over a flushed and happy couple who are just entering.

                  “Crap,” Akira says, getting up.

                  “What just happened?” Haru asks, apparently the only other person to have noticed.

                  “I have no idea, but I’d better go after him. I’ll text you guys if we’re not going to be back in a little while.”

                  When he gets out of the restaurant, he’s immediately overwhelmed by the throngs of couples trickling past, hand-in-hand, beneath the ropes and ropes of twinkling colored lights. At first, he thinks there’s no way he’s going to find him, and he pulls out his phone to at least send him a text, and then he sees the blue-shadowed footprints leading off towards the back of the KFC, where no one has any business being, where the light dusting of snow hasn’t even been disturbed. Behind there, Akira knows, is the Shibuya river. He swears under his breath, his heart thumping unpleasantly in his chest, and then he follows the footprints at a brisk trot.

He finds Goro sitting on the concrete bank of the river, with his knees drawn into his chest, staring at the sluggishly flowing water. “Hey,” Akira says, and although Goro turns to look at him, it’s a long moment before the blankness melts away from his eyes and he seems to recognize Akira.

                  “Oh, hello,” he says lightly, as lightly as if the two of them were meeting for coffee at the coffee shop, as lightly as if he hadn’t just been staring down into the dark waters that mutely reflect the bright Christmas tree lights.

                  “Fancy finding you here,” Akira says dryly. Then he squats beside the other boy. “Are you all right?”

                  “Of course,” Goro answers immediately, and, just as immediately, his eyes slide away from Akira’s, down towards the phone clutched loosely in his right hand. He must have just stopped fiddling with it, because it’s still unlocked, and Akira can see the red Youtube frame, and inside it, Goro’s face above the black words, _Famous detective Akechi talks stepping down, focusing on his studies & his ‘special someone.’_

                  “You don’t look all right. Are you regretting leaving your show?”

                  Goro’s eyes follow his gaze, and he reactively clicks his thumb down to lock his phone. “It’s—not that,” he says slowly. “Not exactly.”

                  “Then what? You left in a big hurry. Haru and Futaba are worried.”

                  Ghost of a smile. Goro ducks his head, looking up at Akira from beneath his light brown lashes, and then reaches up to tuck an errant curl behind Akira’s ear. “Just Haru and Futaba?”

                  “I trust you to take care of yourself,” Akira says awkwardly, fidgeting with his hands.

                  “You’re still allowed to worry,” Goro sighs. “I worry about you, too. Although admittedly usually it’s more about when you will come to your senses and realize that the two of us will never—”

                  “Oh, shut up, Goro,” Akira tells him affectionately. “Is that what you’re worrying about again? Is that why you left?”

                  “I’m not _like_ you,” Goro insists. “We don’t look at things the same way.”

                  “So?” Akira settles himself into a more comfortable position. “It would be very boring if we all looked at things the same way. Or worse, we might all agree with Ryuji on everything.”

                  That gets him a chuckle, although Goro keeps staring down at his hands for a while. Finally, he looks at Akira again, and starts speaking, in an awkward, almost stilted kind of way, as if he’s reciting something from memory. “I never really thought about the future. If I thought about it at all, I suppose I assumed either I wouldn’t have one, or it would be the same as everything that had come before. Thinking about the future—well, it wasn’t very useful to someone in my position.”

                  Akira goes still. “No,” he says after a moment. “I suppose it wouldn’t be.”

                  “And now,” Goro says, and his voice is trembling, just a bit. “Now—now there’s something I want to keep that isn’t—that I can’t just—I can’t just keep doing what I’m doing and be sure I _can_ keep it, because you—you—I’ve never—I want you to _want_ me. I could make you stay, but I couldn’t—I couldn’t make you— _want_ to.”

                  Akira hasn’t really heard him sound like this before: lost and afraid and vulnerable. “You don’t need to _make_ me,” he says, putting his hand over Goro’s. “I _do_ want you.”

                  “It won’t last,” Goro blurts. “It can’t. It—that’s what people _do_ , they leave, and I thought I could handle that. I thought I could take what I was given and not want anything more, and then I looked across at you in the restaurant and suddenly I couldn’t, so I—left.”

                  “I’m not going to leave,” Akira says. “Goro.” There are unshed tears glistening in Goro’s eyes. He puts a hand on the other boy’s chin and tilts his face up. “I love you,” he says, the words dropping out surprisingly easily. The expression of pain on Goro’s face is washed out with something halfway between wonder and panic.

                  “You—what?” he gets out hesitantly.

                  “I love you,” Akira says again. “So, no, I’m not going to leave. It’s not what I do. Remember we see the world differently?” He puts a hand on Goro’s head gently. “It’s good,” he says. “It’s _good_ that we do. I’m crap at taking care of myself, I’ve told you before.”

                  At that, Goro manages a water smile. “True,” he concedes. “And I am terrified of everything to do with the future. Particularly, right now, university. And losing you. I know those sound rather—odd to be put side by side, but—”

                  “We haven’t even taken the entrance exams yet,” Akira says. “Plenty of time to worry about that once we get our results back.” He slides his arm down and puts it around Akechi’s shoulders. “You’re brilliant, and I’m not that bad.” He grins. “We can study together. It’ll be fun.”

                  Goro sighs and leans his head into Akira’s shoulder. “‘Fun,’” he says wryly. Akira kisses the top of his head.

                  “Okay, it’ll be terrible,” sighs Akira. “But it seems a _little_ easier than fighting God.”

                  “Point,” concedes Goro. “Sometimes…all of that seems like a dream. Or a nightmare.”

                  “Yeah,” Akira agrees, and he cuddles Goro harder. “Do you want to come back to dinner? Or would you rather we just skip out?”

                  Goro takes a deep breath. “How can I resist the opportunity to watch Ryuji vomit up three buckets’ worth of fried chicken?” he deadpans.

                  “Yeah, it would just be tragic if you missed it,” Akira agrees, getting slowly to his feet and holding out his hand to Goro. It takes a moment, but the other boy swipes a hand across his eyes and then takes it.

                  “Insofar as I understand the emotion, I love you, too,” he says quietly. “Please don’t leave me.”

                  As he gets to his feet, Akira takes his other hand as well, pulling him in close, and kisses him carefully on the lips. “I won’t,” he says. “Promise.”

                  “I didn’t think I’d believe you,” Goro says, with a shaky laugh. “But—somehow—I do.”


End file.
